Connecting to Networked File Servers

The combination of the Unix underpinnings of Mac OS X and Apple’s existing experience with networking protocols, such as AppleTalk make OS X one of the most connected operating systems around. Your out-of-the-box Mac OS X system can access files shared from other Macintosh systems and fileservers using AppleTalk, files shared from a Microsoft Windows system via SMB or CIFS, and files shared from Linux and Unix systems via NFS or AppleTalk. This level of connectivity requires significant configuration, compilation, and operational gymnastics on any other kind of computer system.

Mac OS X provides built-in support for the following protocols, each of which is explained in more detail in the upcoming sections: